The Official Venmo Blog

April 25, 2012 · by Venmo

Ron Shapiro, Columbia University student and Venmo intern, talks about how Venmo provides his student organization with an easier way to collect dues.

Ron, long accustomed to using Venmo for coffee runs during exam week and splitting bar tabs with his friends, has found an innovative way of to Venmo to improve his extracurricular activities. He established a Venmo Club account for his Hillel group to collect dues, making it much easier to plan big events.

Ron’s group plans a dinner for 250 people. Collecting money from all of those people was cumbersome and a little socially awkward. “Asking people for cash can be really nerve-wracking and kind of a pain,” he explained. Adding, “when dues can’t be collected, group leaders end up funding events from their project budget.”

With Venmo, Ron just charges group members directly from the app on his phone. “It makes our lives infinitely easier,” Ron added. Now he can even monitor the dues he’s collected and view them on the web.

Fraternities, sororities, acapella groups and countless other student-run organizations all plan group events and rely on dues collected from their members. Ron’s even been encouraging his friend, the treasurer of a Columbia fraternity, to start collecting dues with Venmo next year. He’s hopeful more and more student groups at Columbia will bypass the hassle of collecting cash and start using Venmo: “Everyone agrees it’s the future.”

Thanks, Ron!

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